North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Sacred pohutukawa grove collapses
Big trees fall hard, but few fall harder than a trio of century-old pohutukawa you’ve been asking Auckland Council to trim for 13 years.
On May 17, two five-storey pohutukawa trees crashed to the ground in heavy rain and wind on the grounds of Mon Desir apartment block in Takapuna.
For Mon Desir residents, the loss of the trees was all the more infuriating for its predictability.
On April 5, another pohutukawa of the same size collapsed during heavy rain at Mon Desir.
And, since 2004, the Mon Desir residents have made eight unsuccessful applications to Auckland Council to trim pohutukawa on their gusty beachside location to ensure they are stable.
‘‘The fact we’ve lost these trees is a direct result of the failure of Auckland Council and the arborist community to give consent to any sensible work to ensure the long-term survival of the trees,’’ Mon Desir body corporate chair Don Mackintosh says.
Yet, the grounds of the Mon Desir apartments are actually within a ‘‘sacred grove’’ of pohutukawa trees, on the banks of Takapuna Beach, overseen by the iwi authority Nga¯ i Tai Ki Ta¯ maki.
Auckland Council resource consent manager Ian Dobson says, despite the requests for individual work on pohutukawa trees at Mon Desir, a long-term management plan for tree maintenance was never supplied.
‘‘Given the prominence of the
‘‘If someone had got killed there, you wouldn't find the council fronting up.’’ resident Don Mackintosh
trees and their value to iwi, council have encouraged the residents to develop a management plan for the long-term maintenance and retention of the trees. However, to date, no management plan has been put in place,’’ Dobson says.
Mackintosh says the health and safety risk the pohutukawa grove posed during a stormy autumn was substantial.
‘‘We try to make it a safe site and fence it off and all the rest of it. But if someone had got killed there, you wouldn’t find the council fronting up keen to take any responsibility for it,’’ Mackintosh says.
Fellow Mon Desir resident Terry Smith says the lack of action from council to provide maintenance on the pohutukawa lacked all common sense: ‘‘That’s all it is, it’s bureaucracy. Some people have got their own little department and they turn it into a kingdom.’’